Syl: Chapter 107 (Patreon)

Chapter 107: Ghoulish

At the sight of the battle-ready ghoul, I immediately triggered [Tranquil Flow], and a serene warmth washed over my mind and emotions. The ghoul leaped forward, its claws and fangs hungering for flesh. Moving with a calm and fluid grace, my body effortlessly evaded its attack. It lunged again, its hostility a mere force to be diverted, and my body seamlessly glided out of harm's way.

'The attacks are like currents... And I'm just following the flow.'

Its lack of success seemed to fuel its hungered desire even further, and somehow, it stepped up its savage assault to another level. Curling its hands together as if trying to disembowel me, it pierced forward. Having entrusted myself fully to the state of mind, my body opened up, and its piercing strike sailed through the gap in my torso. The creature leaped backward, a new hesitancy on its face.

'Shit, I didn't mean to do that!' 

I started to panic a little; I hadn't expected to lose myself in the state that much; it conformed with my gelatinous and fluidic form so much that the action had felt perfectly natural to me. 

'Shit. Wait, what if I use this and go all jelly while in disguise? There's no way I could explain that away. Shit. Have I made a mistake by picking this skill up?'

Abruptly, the state ended; my little neurotic episode was too opposing for it to remain active. The ghoul's claws struck against [Arcane Armor] again before I realized what had happened. Then, its fangs sank down, and I heard the familiar sound of the barrier shattering. In a panicked response, I erupted with all my tendrils at once, all of them aimed at the ghoul in an attempt to push it away from me. The abrupt change in form was completely unexpected, and the six tendrils slammed it against the wall so hard that settled dust was disturbed.

Realizing my mistake, I immediately began working on killing the ghoul, triggering [Acid Slime] and rapidly melting away at it. I was horrified at its strength; it took nearly all six tendrils to restrain it. It screamed endlessly until it died, and I could hear the banging in the distance getting louder and what sounded like hinges being broken.

I briefly glanced over its profile, confirming it was undead and seeing traits related to blood-feeding and unholy strength. What startled me was that I could see a clear link from human to ghoul among my profiles. I'd look into it in more detail later; I had what sounded like a horde coming for me.

I worked to quickly form a half [Ice Dome] spell and cast it at the other doorway, hoping it would give me a little more time before the other enemies arrived. Since I wasn't flying, I swapped out [Enchanted Wings] for [Inferno Sac], and it would be my emergency backup if things got too out of hand since past experience told me the undead didn't like fire.

'It always comes back to fire; no wonder Dewi likes it so much.'

I tried to calm myself down and reactivate [Tranquil Flow], but I was not in the right frame of mind, and it rebuffed me. I'd have to get in more practice later and see if I could somehow keep with the flow without it morphing my body if I was in disguise. I'd hate to lose such a powerful skill by limiting its availability to only slime time. Maybe another [Sub-Core] order?

I could hear bashing against the ice, so I began casting [Ice Patch] to freeze the entire floor. Then, I lifted myself up to the ceiling with some adhesive tendrils. Transforming my core to match the stonework, I hoped to remain undetected as I withdrew slime and started to spread out, claiming the entire ceiling as my domain. I maneuvered the formed [Flame Sac] into a corner, hoping to keep it safe and secure as my emergency backup plan.

'Well, if they attack and rupture the organ, that works too.' I chuckled to myself.

I tried to use [Life Sight] to try to get a prediction on their numbers, but either they were out of range, or the undead were excluded. [Thermal Vision] wasn't a help either; "as cold as a corpse" came to mind. With [Mana Conception], I could see tiny black dots, probably some form of death-related mana that fueled these creatures.

The last of my preparations involved casting [Arcane Armor] on my core. Having the protection on my slime as a whole was a waste, and I was pleased when that was a viable target. I saw my camouflaged core gain the magical extra coating that vanished after settling in place. I made a mental note to test having all my [Sub-Cores] cast the spell on themselves.

The icy barrier cracked and shattered as the small horde of ghouls rushed into the room, almost immediately losing their footing as they stepped onto the ice. Any tension I had deflated like a balloon as I couldn't help but laugh at the sight of these undead monsters falling and slipping over one another. They snarled and hissed, even swiping at each other. I gave them all a quick [Identify]; none had a combat class, and the highest ghoul level was only three. It really seemed like a bunch of civilians were captured and transformed into these abominations.

<Proficiency gained. [Identify LV 4] improved to [Identify LV 5].>

Having seen enough, I made my move. I immediately grabbed three ghouls using two tendrils each and flung them into large pockets of slime. These pockets were large enough to hold them in place while dissolving them, and by turning up the density to the max after submerging them, I doubted that they could escape. 

Meanwhile, I started to cycle casts between two [Icicle] spells. Despite my additional rank in [Multitasking], I couldn't handle a third spell while also keeping my attention on my tendrils. Unfortunately, I dropped [Icicle] in favor of [Acid Dart] after confirming the spell lacked the punching power to reliably deal with the ghouls. For now, I avoided any fire spells to prevent the makeshift icerink from melting.

The ghouls fought back by clawing at the ice with one hand to stabilize and then swiping at my tendrils as they approached. I just had to keep them occupied until the digestion pockets finished their job, and then I could throw another ghoul to replace them. If I had my helpers, I could have probably created more than three of my slime pockets. Still, alone, even my refined and high-spec core struggled to handle all of this slime with varying densities, multiple [Pseudopods], and not to mention magic.

The plan wasn't flawless, however, as some of the ghouls managed to slide towards some of the slabs, where, upon reaching, they used their more stable footing to leap upwards and take slashes at me. Their effort rewarded them with a handful of [Acid Slime], and they screeched in pain.

When a few of them decided this fight wasn't worth continuing and started heading towards the door that led to the exit, I was forced to cast another [Ice Dome] to block their attempts. They started bashing against the ice, and I knew I needed to finish them off before they escaped; if some of them managed and survived falling to the surface, there could be dire consequences.

I extracted the [Inferno Sac] and dangled the organ into the center of the room. One of the ghouls immediately saw it as a tantalizing target and leaped for it, landing a vicious bite against the rather fragile organ. As I suspected, it ruptured and exploded in a fiery detonation, washing through the entire room in a flame coating.

'Not as effective as using the flames directly, so not really a useful attack option.' I deliberated. I had wondered about using them as a sort of bomb, trap, or even a pseudo fireball, but I was better off pulling continuous flames into a breath attack. Frankly, I was more impressed by the explosion I pulled off in the mineshaft.

Any surviving stragglers got thrown straight into the slime pockets as I quickly worked to finish up. While these monsters weren't exactly a direct threat to me, especially if they didn't know to target my core, it was nice to see a good plan come to fruition. 

I scrolled through the numerous notifications and summarized my final earnings.

<Class Experience threshold reached. Shadowcaster is now LV 14.>

<13 Skill Points are now available.>

'Really? All those ghouls and I barely gained a level?' I complained. Their racial level was low, but they had decent class levels, so I had expected much bigger gains. 'Do noncombat classes give reduced experience? It's the only thing I can assume with these results.'

I shrugged and reformed into my weird little chimeric goblin again to continue my exploration of this lab. The next room contained more prisons, now mostly broken free. There was the occasional one still trapped inside, which I finished off with acid. I collected some of the metals from the various boxes as [Appraisal] told me they were either iron or lead. I noted that all the broken boxes were lead, while the iron ones still had a few ghoulish prisoners.

"More metal samples for my future silver slime," I said with a grin.

However, I still hadn't found any real valuables, and my inner treasure hunter was feeling rather disappointed as I walked from room to room. Eventually, I stumbled across a locked reinforced door and hoped I'd finally get something. The door was described as mana-treated wood, and the reinforcing was mana-enriched iron. I saved a decent quantity of both in my storage before devouring the rest.

Beyond the door looked like a small study, although the bookshelves contained nothing but rotting or crumbling tomes. On the desk, however, was a book that somehow seemed to survive the test of time. I immediately approached it and melted the tiny lock that kept it securely closed. 

I immediately started skimming through the book, and almost unsurprisingly, it sounded mostly like the ravings of a mad lunatic.

Why have the Gods forsaken us humans?

Why are the dwarves and elves favored over us?

Why can we not evolve?

There must be a solution; I refuse to accept that we are forced to be shackled to this mortal fleshbag. I've seen a simple wolf evolve into a hybrid between wolf and man, so surely there is another path for us? I will find it!

The author seemed to blame the Gods a lot and seemed exceedingly bitter. He tried all sorts of things, even performing operations on test subjects, replacing their organs, limbs, and even brains with those of monsters. It mentioned him dabbling in necromancy, monster taming, and even failing at demon summoning. 

Through my advancements in the necromantic arts, I have found a new type of monster that transforms what it feeds on into an entirely new race! I feel like this is the answer I've been searching for! 

The only variable to overcome is that they are automatically enslaved after transitioning, and they become seemingly mindless, hungry beasts. But I think the solution is actually rather simple; I just need to kill the creature before the enslavement is complete. Yes, finally, I will transcend!

That was the last entry, and I closed the book with a frown.

"Man, this is some creepy shit," I muttered, shaking my head.

"Tell me about it." A soft yet high-pitched voice replied.